CRP emergency: Thune’s request aids livestock producers battling drought.
WASHINGTON — Help is on the way for drought-stricken livestock producers.
Two days after U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, requested the reversal of a federal requirement that ordered producers to destroy hay on certain Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land, and the longtime senator’s request was granted Thursday morning.
The reversal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s order comes amid a nasty drought striking South Dakota and much of the High Plains, with 244,144 people located in drought areas according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Now that the order has been reversed, certain CRP acres will be eligible for hay donation to livestock producers in drought-stricken counties.
According to Thursday’s press release, any county in which a part of its border lies within 150 miles of a county approved for grazing of CRP can donate hay to livestock producers.
The USDA will also allow immediate access to emergency grazing of CRP in counties lying within 150 miles of a county already approved for CRP emergency grazing, which includes several counties in north and west South Dakota.
"I will continue to work to work with Secretary Perdue to ensure our producers have the tools and resources needed to manage through these difficult drought conditions," Thune said.
And the Dakotas weren’t impervious to drought conditions.
"The most deterioration, however, occurred in the Dakotas, especially northwestern South Dakota and North Dakota, where the rapidly worsening conditions warranted expansion of moderate, severe, and extreme drought to many regions," states the most recent national drought summary from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Producers at war with mother nature during the drought.
RAPID CITY, S.D.
(KOTA TV) – Producers across KOTA Territory are at war again with mother nature.
Embarking on the summer months, many ranches are already facing a D3 level of dryness which is considered extreme drought according to the United States Drought Monitor.
During a drought many producers are stuck between a rock and a hard place, should they sell or keep their livestock.
"We have to put a pencil and paper and figure out what is the best option for our ranch, the thing is what we do on our ranch is not going to be what the neighbor next door on his ranch does because even though we are similar there are a lot of differences," said rancher Josh Geigle.
Producers are being forced with many tough decisions during this drought but ultimately they are at the mercy of mother nature.
"We just need rain, I mean you got to hope and pray that we get some rain and with the glory of God, we can get through this," said rancher J.T.
Moon

North Korea drought mobilizes workers to fight drought, bans travel.
June 29 (UPI) — North Korea is struggling with a drought on a "daily basis," according to state media.
The state-controlled paper claimed a "powerful demonstration" of "solidarity among county residents" had yielded "continuous results" after they worked together to water the fields.
Official recognition of a severe drought comes at a time when sources in the country say authorities are restricting movement and forcing marketplaces to close early.
The ban on movement began in April, according to a source in North Korea’s Yanggang Province.
In June, the drought was used as an "excuse" to disallow movement, while in May "military tensions between North and South" was the reason cited for requiring ordinary North Koreans to not roam beyond their home base, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday.
"The inspection of lodging, the vetting of local residents, are happening without warning," the source said.
A source in the country’s Jagang Province said business hours at marketplaces are being restricted.
Stores are being allowed to stay open only from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. "People are facing difficulties in maintaining their livelihood," the source said.
One source in North Hamgyong Province said the area "didn’t have a single drop of rain," according to RFA.

Rome turns off its historic ‘big nose’ drinking fountains as drought grips Italy.
“We know perfectly well the inconvenience that this will cause, but it is due to the exceptional drought,” Paolo Saccani, the head of the utility company that manages the fountains, wrote in a letter to Virginia Raggi, Rome’s mayor.
The level of the lake has been falling for weeks as the city sucks vast quantities of fresh water from it.
But the decision to let the fountains run dry was criticised by many locals, as well as consumer groups.
“There will be negative consequences for everyone,” said Carlo Rienzi, the president of Codacons, a consumers’ rights organisation.
“Turning off the fountains will force tourists and citizens to buy bottles of water in bars and shops and prices will no doubt be hiked up.
Each spout is punctured by a tiny hole – block the end of the spout with your hand, and a thin stream of water arches out of the hole, meaning you don’t have to bend down so low to drink.
Most of the cast-iron fountains are stamped with the letters SPQR – Senatus Populus Que Romanus, or the Senate and the People of Rome, the symbol of the ancient city.
Weeks of unseasonably high temperatures and a lack of rain have left vast areas of Italy suffering from drought.
Farmers say the dry spell has cost them more than one billion euros in lost production so far this year.

Going into the 2017 season, there are a total of 12 teams in the league that have a Super Bowl drought of 20 or more years.
Super Bowl droughts of at least 20 seasons (Team, length of drought, last Super Bowl appearance) Lions (51 seasons, have never played in the Super Bowl) Browns (51 seasons, have never played in the Super Bowl) Browns fans, we know you won an NFL title in 1964.
This time around, we’re upping the ante by ranking each team’s chances of ending their Super Bowl drought and we’re going to start with the three teams that have no chance of ending their Super Bowl drought.
The Jaguars are one of three teams on the drought list that has never played in a Super Bowl.
Since Brady became the Patriots starting quarterback in 2001, the Bills and Dolphins have combined to win exactly zero division titles in seasons where he’s healthy.
To end their 28-season Super Bowl drought, the Bengals would actually have to win a playoff game this year, and we all know that’s not going to happen because they’re cursed by Bo Jackson.
If the Lions don’t make the Super Bowl this year, fans would probably be OK with that as long as the season contains at least one playoff win.
Kansas City Chiefs A 5-11 team that finished last in the AFC West in 2016 might seem like an odd team to have listed this high, but if the Chargers offensive line can figure out how to protect Philip Rivers, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them rip off nine or 10 wins in 2017 and sneak into the playoffs.
Basically, if Reid has spent his entire offseason figuring out how to manage late game situations, then the Chiefs might just have a chance at ending their Super Bowl drought.
Well, this year, they might be right about that whole winning Super Bowl thing because we’re giving the Cowboys the best chance of any team on this list to end their Super Bowl drought.

Abnormal dryness (D0) was introduced this week from northeastern Cumberland County to central Knox County and westward into southeastern Kennebec County.
With rapidly deteriorating conditions, abnormal dryness (D0) was introduced across large portions, with already existing moderate drought (D1) expanding in the central part of the state, where drier conditions were present.
At least some rain fell across most of Texas over the past week, with 2 inches or more in parts of the southeast, central to north central, and north.
Southern Ohio received enough precipitation to remove the abnormal dryness (D0) from the southern region, although it remains in the Toledo area to the north where deficits are as much as 3 inches over the past month.In Iowa, abnormal dryness (D0) was extended to the south in western Shelby, eastern Harrison, and northwestern Pottawattamie Counties where rainfall over the past month has been less than 50% of average.
Abnormally dry conditions now encompass most of the state, save for the far west and parts of the far east.
According to the USDA/NASS reports, the percent of topsoil moisture that was short to very short for the week ending June 25 was 53% in North Dakota, 63% in South Dakota, and 56% in Nebraska, increases of 10, 8 and 20%, respectively, compared to the June 18 report.
Here, according to local experts, even cooler-than-average temperatures over the last several days of this period did not appear to make a positive difference on the drought impacts being felt by dryland producers.Abnormally dry (D0), moderate drought (D1), and severe drought (D2) were all expanded to the south and to the west.
Welcome precipitation has fallen across large parts of the Northern Plains and Midwest, notably in central to eastern North Dakota, parts of southern south Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa.
Author(s): Jessica Blunden, NOAA/NCEI Dryness Categories D0 … Abnormally Dry … used for areas showing dryness but not yet in drought, or for areas recovering from drought.
Moderate Drought D2 …

In science news this week: Delta Independent Science Board’s final review of EcoRestore’s adaptive management program; Looks are deceiving for ‘scary looking’ lamprey; Acoustic fish tags document predation; Sea-level rise and the governance gap in the San Francisco Bay Area; Caspian push and pull; US FWS looking for volunteers to help save future generations of seabirds; and more … Delta Independent Science Board’s final review of EcoRestore’s adaptive management program: “The “EcoRestore Adaptive Management Program White Paper, v3/7/2017” (White Paper) improves the prospects for managing Delta restoration projects adaptively.
… ” Read more from the US FWS here: Looks are deceiving for ‘scary looking’ lamprey Acoustic fish tags document predation: “Not only can predatory fish take a bite out of salmon populations, they can also mess with studies of fish survival.
Tagging and tracking fish with acoustic tags is an important method for understanding how young salmon move and survive.
However, this depends on a critical assumption: that the acoustic tag only represents the movement of the tagged fish, and not a predator that has consumed it (Gibson et al. 2015).
Once a tagged fish is eaten, its tag may still transmit data on the movement of the predator fish, which can skew survival estimates and lead to false conclusions.
… ” Read more from the FishBio blog here: Acoustic fish tags document predation Sea-level rise and the governance gap in the San Francisco Bay Area: “Most San Francisco Bay Area policymakers understand that sea-level rise is a serious threat to the region, agree that preparing for it should be a priority, and have a basic understanding of solutions that would help the region adapt to sea-level rise, such as wetlands, living shorelines, seawalls and levees.
… ” Read more from the US FWS here: Join us: Help save future generations of seabirds Flood plan boosts floodplain: “When the Central Valley Flood Protection Board adopts the 2017 Update to its Flood Protection Plan later this summer it be another twist in the serpentine evolution of California’s approach to flood management.
… ” Read more from Estuary News here: LA drainage goes native Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?
Maven’s XKCD Comic Pick of the Week … Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!
About Science News and Reports: This weekly feature, posted every Thursday, is a collection of the latest scientific research and reports with a focus on relevant issues to the Delta and to California water, although other issues such as climate change are sometimes included.

New study explores plant adaptations to drought and cold stress.
While researchers have been uncovering one distinctive gene co-expression network after another in recent years, "Most people have stopped there and thrown their hands up," says Scarpino, a former Santa Fe Institute Omidyar Fellow and current professor at the University of Vermont.
Understanding interactions between different gene networks, which are evolved to respond to different stressors, and understanding natural variation in these responses could have important agricultural applications in challenging environments.
This study focused on the small, flowering plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, which is part of the Brassicaceae ⁄ Cruciferae family along with cabbage and broccoli.
These two responses differ strategically and in evolutionary age.
During drought, the differentiated tissues of roots, stems, and leaves each performs distinctive operations.
But when the environment cools, the cells in every tissue cope similarly, and by means that might as well have been applied, in prototype, by single-celled ancestors eons ago.
Scarpino and co-authors David Des Marais (Harvard University), Rafael Guerrero (Indiana University), and Jesse Lasky (Pennsylvania State University) found that the genes that specifically cooperated during cold mapped to central, broadly networked positions within the roughly 10,000-gene network.
Their distinct organizations also might explain why there is more natural genetic variation in drought hardiness than against cold across Arabidopsis thaliana.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0914

The State Water Board’s Groundwater Management Program website and GSA Compliance Map are located here: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/gmp/ All GSA notifications can be submitted, viewed, and managed within DWR’s SGMA Portal: http://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/#gsa Contact: Mark Nordberg Mark.Nordberg@water.ca.gov or (916) 651-9673 Draft Guidance Documents for Engagement and Communication DWR is releasing the draft guidance documents – Guidance Document for Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) Stakeholder Communication and Engagement (C&E) and Engagement with Tribal Governments.
DWR Releases Facilitation Support Service Online Application Beginning July 1, 2017, DWR will be focusing its available FSS resources on supporting the development of Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs).
The goal of the FSS related to GSP development is to assist GSAs in reaching consensus on potentially contentious water management topics arising from the diverse beneficial uses and users of groundwater.
2017 Final Proposal Solicitation Package (PSP) for Groundwater Sustainability Plans and Projects The Sustainable Groundwater Planning (SGWP) grant program is funded by Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond overwhelmingly approved by California voters in 2014.
DWR will solicit proposals to award funding on a competitive basis in two funding categories: projects that serve severely disadvantaged communities and Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs).
For more information visit their Restoration Grant Programs.
Technical Assistance Providing technical assistance to GSAs will be crucial to enabling their success in sustainably managing their groundwater basins.
The goal of the technical assistance program is to comply with requirements in SGMA (10729 and 10733.2) and the GSP regulations (353.2, 354.8, 354.16, and 354.18) for DWR to provide education, data, and tools at both regional and statewide scales to aid GSAs with development and implementation of GSPs and inform water resource planning decisions.
March 31, 2018 – Submission Period Closes and 30-day Public Comment Period opens o All information to support a boundary modification should be submitted to the BBMRS April 30, 2018 – Public Comment Period Closes o DWR begins boundary modification requests and public comments Approximately July 2018 – Draft Basin Boundary Modifications released Approximately August 2018 – Final Basin Boundary Modifications released Contact: Tim Godwin Timothy.Godwin@water.ca.gov or (916) 651-9223 Measuring Groundwater Pumping for SGMA Compliance An educational workshop program from the American Ground Water Trust – Organized in cooperation with the Center for Irrigation Technology Wednesday, July 19, 2017, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. – Fresno, CA Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), California State University The program will provide practical insight and guidance for Growers, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies, County & Municipal Planners, Irrigation Districts and Groundwater End-Users.
For more information and registration, visit http://www.watereducation.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/dwr_sjv_subsidence_aug16_flye.pdf SGMA Definitions and Groundwater Glossary SGMA provided California with a roadmap for sustainably managing our groundwater, and it also came with its own lexicon.

How to live without plastic bottles….
Staying hydrated is good for our health.
Find the one The simplest thing you can do to reduce your contribution to the plastic mountain is to find a water bottle that you like enough to use more than once.
Orb it Earlier this year UK scientists unveiled the Ooho, a fully biodegradable water-filled orb made of two layers of seaweed-based packaging.
The biodegradable outside layer can be recycled, while the inside is edible and can be eaten as you drink the water (or discarded, as you wish).
Ooho orbs are not on the market yet but the makers claim they could be cheaper to produce than plastic bottles.
The marketing suggests that those clutching a bottle of water both look and feel healthier.
And 30% of people said they would still feel awkward asking for a free refill even if they had bought other food or drinks.
At the very least you can buy in bulk to reduce plastic packaging waste.
If this happens, the key is to make sure you recycle the bottle correctly so that it can be repurposed.